Highway to Hell
2023 has been the hottest year on record so far, and 2024 doesn’t seem to be getting any better, with its spring-like winter and anomalous temperatures. What’s happening? Are we blowing up our future?
No stop signs, speed limit; nobody’s gonna slow me down. Like a wheel, gonna spin it; nobody’s gonna mess me around. Ain’t nothing that I’d rather do, going down, party time, my friends are gonna be there too. I’m on my highway to hell. Sprouting skyscrapers and shopping malls, electronics stores increasingly equipped with cutting-edge technology. Supermarkets overflowing with all kinds of products, regardless of the season. Ever-larger car parks, roads, and highways leading everywhere, finally leading us to Hell. If the hell that AC/DC sings about is rather a metaphor for their excessive lifestyle and the frenzy of touring, the hell towards which humanity is driving full speed burns with much more concrete flames. Such as those of the hundreds of megafires that spread across the Boreal Region during the last fire season. Or those of the wildfires in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres that broke out in 2023. The scale of the first ones was such that the skies of the entire US East Coast and Midwest were engulfed by the orange smoke that billowed from Quebec and its burning forests.
Wildfire by Guduru Ajay Bhargav on Pexels
What do fires have to do with our lifestyle? Well, looking back to the industrial revolution, we realize that the increase in comfort that the assembly line granted us did not come without a cost. The ability to produce more enabled greater consumption, which equaled a more intense exploitation of raw materials. These were, and still largely are, planet resources that are limited. Think about fossil fuels, like gasoline for driving cars or natural gas used for heating buildings. Not only are they non-renewable, but they are also responsible for most of the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, the main greenhouse gases involved in climate change. Their overproduction creates a sort of blanket around the Earth that traps the Sun’s heat, causing temperatures to rise. And since our planet’s surface is today 1.1°C warmer than it used to be before the industrial revolution, human beings are to blame. Rising temperatures cause water scarcity, intense droughts, and widespread fires, not to mention the loss of sea ice and the melting of glaciers that lead to flooding and catastrophic storms. Eyes glued shut, though, we pretend everything is fine, embracing earlier springs and shorter yet more severe winters in order not to admit that we are destroying our planet and not to take on our responsibilities.
Image by Justus Menke on Pexels
We keep clearing lands and cutting forests to build infrastructures at the expense of nature. We install intensive livestock and agriculture to meet the desire of an increasingly demanding mass society, without realizing we are self-sabotaging.
Countries’ responsibilities
Greenhouse gases are produced everywhere in the world, but China, the United States, India, Europe, Indonesia, the Russian Federation, and Brazil – the biggest seven emitters – account alone for half of all global emissions. This means that, even if we all are responsible for our lifestyles and consumption habits, the people and countries more involved need to act first. China, for instance, is taking on its burden, re-energizing the world’s largest energy system with renewable resources by increasing solar usage, which is the least-cost option for new electricity generation in most parts of the world today. As a global manufacturing powerhouse, China also has a high demand for raw materials and critical metals but is working towards mainstreaming a circular economy, already recycling 95% of nickel and lithium. These are examples of best practices for businesses of all countries, that go hand in hand with stopping deforestation and planting trees and restoring ecosystems instead, building energy-efficient buildings, and harnessing available technologies to act effectively. For instance, one example of what AI can do is reducing the unpredictability of renewable resources. If for an electricity systems operator predictability is key because he needs supply to meet demand 24-7 in real-time, we don’t know exactly when and where the sun will shine, or the wind will blow. Notwithstanding, AI systems can ingest vast amounts of data and predict future events on that basis. Also, the Metaverse could represent a powerful tool in the fight against climate change. As Cedrik Neike – CEO of Siemens Digital Industries – argues, simulation in the metaverse could prevent us from running out of resources and time in the real world. For example, building a single new battery would cost several raw materials and weeks to a company, whereas exploiting the metaverse would allow it to give it a first try as a simulation, and only if it proves to be worth it, it will then be implemented in the real world.
Image by Lio Voo on Pexels
Take on our burden
If policymakers need to think carefully about the long-term consequences of the policies they implement, and business leaders must prioritize a sustainable future for the people they work for, we all need to identify the values that matter the most to us all and defend them. With the “Friday for Future” movement, for instance, young generations showed the world the potential embedded within humanity to reconnect with the environment, but demonstrating is not enough. We all need to take concrete actions in our lives. How we eat, how we travel, how we decide to heat our houses are decisions that not only have an impact on ourselves but also on the entire planet, changing the fragile balance that keeps our ecosystem together. Science has already provided us with data and solutions and, as Greta Thunberg pointed out during a Ted Talk, we don’t need words of hope. We need action. And then hope for a better future will come.
